The European Commission says it has received the complaint against Spain filed by the former president of the Generalitat, Carles Puigdemont, in response to the Court of Auditors’ maneuver not to directly apply the Amnesty Law, but refrains from making any comment on the matter. The community executive has also reiterated that it is aware of the recent ruling by the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) on the amnesty law, but that “it is up to the relevant courts to apply the rulings of the Court of Justice.”
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“We can confirm that we have received the letter. When complaints are submitted, they are processed in accordance with the Commission’s usual procedure,” a community spokesperson tells La Vanguardia. “Once received, complaints are examined, registered, and evaluated before a decision is made. For now, we have nothing further to add,” the same source concludes.
The complaint will be processed “in accordance with the Commission’s usual procedure”
The letter, filed by the former president’s lawyer, Gonzalo Boye, demands that the Commission’s general secretariat open “the infringement procedure provided for” in Article 258 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU against Spain, due to the “non-compliance” with the CJEU ruling that endorses the norm approved by Congress in 2024.
However, it is not an easy path. Usually, infringement procedures, the files opened by Brussels against EU countries, respond to the country in question not correctly applying a European directive. For example, the file kept open against Spain for the laws used to hinder BBVA’s takeover bid for Banc Sabadell. It is a very common system, which can end with the Commission taking a country before the CJEU. Currently, there are 117 ongoing cases against Spain.
Brussels usually opens infringement procedures for not transposing community directives
Boye’s move comes after the Court of Auditors’ decision to request allegations regarding the accounting responsibility for the October 1st referendum and the Generalitat’s external action, instead of directly applying penal oblivion. This, according to the defense, contradicts the guidelines of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) which last week clearly endorsed the Amnesty Law and maintained that if a case fell within the scope of the law, an “extinction of liability” should be issued without “assessing the allegations and exculpatory evidence.”
Boye registered an 86-page brief in response to the Court of Auditors’ order and includes both the complaint against the Kingdom of Spain before the Commission for not having directly applied penal oblivion and for breaching a European ruling, as well as the brief submitted to Luxembourg. In his text, the lawyer refers to Article 258 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), which regulates infringement procedures. What he argues before Brussels is that Spain is violating Article 267 of the TFEU, concerning the procedure for preliminary rulings.
He also refers to Article 4 of the Treaty on European Union (TEU) where, in its third paragraph, Member States and the Union owe each other “sincere cooperation” in all their organs, including judicial ones. The lawyer also cites the articles related to the necessary resolution within “a reasonable time” and reminds Brussels that “the deliberate non-compliance with a judgment of the Court of Justice by a judicial body of a Member State, accompanied by its public misrepresentation through an official press release, affects the value of the Rule of Law on which the Union is founded.”
The European Commission should provide a response, both if they consider that the complaint should proceed and an infringement procedure should be initiated, and if they decide to close it, in which case the defense would have four weeks to submit additional observations. “We remind you that, regardless of the decision we make, the Commission’s role is to ensure that EU countries properly comply with Union law, and not to resolve their individual situation,” the body recalls in the section dedicated to infringement procedures. They would only not respond if the submission was “insulting” or “senseless and does not require a substantive response.”
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